Wednesday 29 October 2014

I Like The Simple Things

I do like and appreciate the simple things in life, like a hot shower, watching my coffee perk in the morning, lights, an evening of television, having the luxury of sliding my slide out out. These are the little joys which excited electrons moving down a conductor can bring me. 


Funny story, yesterday morning the White Van moved, so I wish to thank:  

The Owner/Driver of the White Van for moving it around front to a parking stall
The person or persons who (if they did) nudged said Owner/Driver to move said van.
The Universe for making this happen. 

So I parked behind work and plugged in, and in that one night I went from nearly dead to fully charged. I was plugged in from say 7:00 pm to 4:00 am.  

This means that technically I can return Jenny, as I haven’t set her up yet . . . she is still in the box. I sat her down and told her that I can’t afford her and that she has to go back. She cried and argued back that she just joined the team and hasn’t been given a chance to prove herself . . . it just wasn’t fair. She also promised to be good and give it her all and start on the first pull, every time  . . . It was sad seeing her eyes wet up and  . . .  FINE!  Alright, it’s a generator and it didn’t say a thing.  (I get carried away with characters sometimes).

I know that I can take her back but I did get a great price on a good generator and I was able to get everything and still be out of overdraft by the time the next paycheque rolls around . . . barely. I also know that I would be a fool not to learn from this experience. I need to keep Jenny, get her running and make sure that she will do what I need her to do. You know, BEFORE I reeeeally need her to charge Wanda’s batteries so I don’t freeze my nards again.

A few people have asked why I was without heat when all of my appliances will work on propane. Yes the appliances will work on propane but their control systems are still electronic. With the furnace the heater unit will work on either AC or propane but I believe that the fan runs on the 12 VDC system and most certainly the digital thermostat does. So without battery (or AC) power, I am dead in the water, so to speak. 

While this is a disadvantage, and one might consider it a design flaw, the conveniences and advantages of the newer technology outweighs this drawback. I can set my furnace to an exact temperature, not just a dial from low to high. It only kicks in when it is needed and doesn’t burn a pilot light all night long. 

The furnace will also detect when I have AC power and use that for heat instead of the propane, it switches automatically. The fridge is governed and controlled by a control system and not just burning all the time. Like the furnace, it will automatically sense when AC power is connected and will switch to it on its own. 

I am fine if I plug in or run Jenny for a few hours twice a week, or once every two weeks in summer. To augment and as a Plan B for the furnace, when I get paid next, I will buy a small propane heater. Wanda is ventilated as I already run my propane stove inside. I may not run it when I am sleeping, not sure if I am comfortable with that, but when I am up and active it would be fine. That way I can have heat in the odd time I am without power again. 

I did my writing in Wanda this morning and it was nice to get back to my routines. The shower felt wonderful, the coffee tasted great and I did enjoy watching a few hours of TV last night.

Writing is slowly going, but it is still creeping along at a steady pace. They key is to keep doing something on the story each and every day, while momentum may slow, it will keep going. At times the momentum will pick up and race along. 

On the subject of finances, this generator setback has put me back but not into the overdraft, that is key. If I don’t spend anything more, I will be fine. Next payday is a tight one so I will have to budget tightly and stick to it, making sure that I spend less than that paycheque, no matter what. (Yeah, yeah a good plan for every paycheque, smarty-pants). If I do that, then I will be going in the right direction. I will go ahead with my plan to save next month’s extra money for the rental place, either to live in Wanda in or to rent the room and live in. 

I will have to trickle save that cushion again, as I will have to move on and start to pay down the second card. Well, life deals you setbacks, but it is how you deal with them that matters. Remember to learn from what happens and focus on the solution and the goal not the problem. 

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